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As the title suggests, the theme of this thesis is one of exploration and journey. The journey in question is essentially one of a spiritual nature. The process of conveying this motion in musical terms presented me with many challenges. The musical scores draw their inspiration from cultures as diverse as the rhythms of West Africa the overtone chanting of Tibet and Native American spiritual chants. It is predominantly these sources, that sit outside the European classical tradition, which enable me to write meaningful music that echoes both the philosophical and spiritual ideas I need to communicate. Some of the music presented here, however, gains its impetus from political issues of particular importance to myself. Meditation- double bass; dur. 8 mins. Memories - clarinet and viola ; dur. 2 mins. Invocation - flute, clarinet, violin, cello and guitar; dur. 10 mins. Hidden Song - string quartet; dur 11 mins. Prayer - Eb clarinet, voice, viola, flute and percussion; dur. 10 mins. Why? - flute, clarinet, violin, cello and tape; dur 10 mins. Tribute to Mr, King - organ; dur 20 mins. What has happened to all that Beauty? - string quartet, voice and live electronics; dur. 15 mins. Movements - symphony orchestra; dur. 20 mins. Journey Across the Horizon - voice, mixed voices, chamber orchestra; dur. 45 mins.

Most traditional musical harmony teaching methods in use in undergraduate courses are centred on pedagogical principles that require students to manipulate musical elements, beyond those directly relevant to the subject matter. Beginning harmony students often encounter extra difficulty in the learning process as they usually lack experience in manipulating individual musical elements. In addition, the emphasis on exemplars of the common practice of eighteenth and nineteenth century composers imposes some limitation on the student’s harmonic vocabulary and, in consequence, on the student’s creativity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Arnold Schoenberg proposed a method of teaching harmony which presented a different set of pedagogical principles: the method required no background knowledge of other musical elements; it encouraged the exploration of the search space of solutions which, in conjunction with a self assessment of them, helps students to develop their own harmonic sense, without the influence of exemplars of the harmonic practice of existing composers. However, although Schoenberg’s method addresses the problems presented above, it has not been widely used, mostly because its fundamental pedagogy and curriculum are buried in lengthy philosophical discussions of polemical arguments and criticism of traditional methods. This thesis investigates the possibility of designing and constructing a computer-based learning environment presenting the pedagogy and curriculum of Schoenberg’s harmonic teaching method while remaining true to its spirit. We present a formalisation of part of the method’s curriculum and associated pedagogical principles, which have been embodied in a prototype learning environment. The results from studies involving the prototype are also presented: a formative evaluation was carried out with music experts aiming to assess its interactive music notation human computer interface and to inform changes and improvements to be made to the prototype; and a summative evaluation was conducted with music lecturers to assess not only the degree of faithfulness of the environment to the method, but also the educational benefits that such an environment can potentially bring to harmony teaching.

In spite of the current upsurge of interest in the field of rural church music in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there is surprisingly little exhaustive material dealing with one particular area of the country. Research from the early part of this century covers the West Country and Sussex, and the concensus has always been that these areas were the strongest in the tradition of local psalmody. This dissertation attempts to redress the balance by considering the choir-band in the Eastern Counties (the East Midlands, East Anglia and Mid-Anglia). The county of Northamptonshire is given particular consideration, and may be considered to be a 'typical' English county; this may show that this genre of music is very much more widespread than was formerly thought. The thesis describes the state of the late eighteenth-century Church, and discusses the role of music in the service, the situation of the choir-band and methods of payment. Examples of local psalmody in Northamptonshire are given, and the instrumentation of the choir-bands is studied, by reference to sources such as churchwardens' account books. Conclusions are drawn about instrumental trends, dispersion and influence. The lasting significance of the choir-band movement is also considered.

This practice-based research into the quality of presence in performance explores a compositional approach that originates from the question of what might lead a person to seek musical or sounding utterance. It aims at opening the awareness-space towards a listening not only to the musical-acoustic event, but to the performer as a whole. Consequently different forms of notation and processes of rehearsing that address the psycho-physical constitution of a performer are investigated; a strong focus lies on the sensorimotor aspect of playing an instrument. The portfolio comprises fourteen pieces (for soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestra) as well as four collaborative projects with performance artists. Most of the pieces have been performed live: documentation on CD and DVD is included. The written part of the thesis provides a commentary on the process of bringing these pieces into being. In particular, issues of notation and rehearsal are addressed here, which are of special concern as to the transmission of conceptions regarding presence, embodiment and kinaesthetic sensitivities. I explain how the body of compositions deals with various notions of listening: receptive listening and - in the chapter on the orchestral piece spun yam - listening as a sense of touch as well as listening in wonder. Illustrated by several performance projects I outline the concept of the audience as witness rather than as observer. Additionally, I describe how I use imagery to inscribe possible stimuli for musical or sounding utterance into my compositions. To demonstrate how this research contributes to new knowledge in the field of musical composition, I compare it with similar yet different positions exemplified by Mauricio Kagel's "instrumental theatre" as well as Helmut Lachenmann's "musique concrete instrumentale" and place it against more recent trends and developments. These evaluations will show that there is no other approach to the quality of presence within musical composition coinciding exactly with mine.